Description

The top news stories coming out of professional sports in 2014 all seem to have involved commissioners of the major American sports imposing discipline on players and even owners for what has largely been off field issues. This lecture with combine an examination of topical cases: MLB and Alex Rodriguez; NFL and Ray Rice and NBA and Donald Sterling with an exploration of labor, antitrust and contract law to explore the reach and limitation of Commissioner power in the major sports.

Lecturer Bio

Robert Boland, A.B., J.D.

Robert Boland has an A.B. from Columbia University and a J.D. from the Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. He is best known as the founding faculty of New York University’s graduate program in Sports Business. In August 2014, he concluded a highly successful term as the Academic Chair (chief academic officer) of NYU’s Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management. During his leadership, the Tisch Center came to include five degree-granting programs in Sports, Hospitality and Tourism and nearly doubled in size from 2011 to 2014 growing to enroll more than 800 students in 2014, with a full-time faculty of 15 and an adjunct faculty of nearly 120 industry leaders.

Boland most frequently taught Professional Franchises, Sports Tourism & Mega Sports Events, Sports Law, Sports Contracts and Antitrust and Collective Bargaining in Sports. He also has co-taught Sports Law at NYU Law School with the legendary law professor Arthur R. Miller. His research interests include all aspects of sports business but particularly the intersection of sports contracts, collective bargaining, antitrust law and the relationship between cities and sports teams and events.

In August 2015, Boland joined the faculty at Ohio University, as one of the first sports law expert to be a member of the faculty at the oldest, and top-ranked sports administration program, globally and in the U.S.

Professor Boland is experienced as a labor, antitrust and criminal attorney with 20 years of practice experience. For more than decade he was an active player agent negotiating more than 100 player contracts and endorsement agreements in a variety of sports. He currently advises a boutique range of clients as Principal of Boland Sports Practice Group, LLC, in addition to his teaching and research, specializing in advising pro franchise purchase groups, professional teams, universities and conferences on legal, economic, stadium, strategic and search issues.

Professor Boland is also a widely sought expert by media to discuss sports law and business subjects, and has recently appeared on or been quoted by ABC, NBC, CNN and Bloomberg Television; WFAN-AM, KMOX, Sirius Baseball, Al Jazeera America and Fox; Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Business Week, Bloomberg, MSNBC.com, the Associated Press, USA Today, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. His writing has been featured in Americas Quarterly, Sports Business Journal, National Football Post and Forbes Sports Money. Academically, he is the co-author of two leading peer-reviewed studies on coaching contracts and legal issues in the NFL published in the Marquette Sports Law Review.

As a speaker, he has appeared or keynoted at events hosted by: New York State Bar Association, Practising Law Institute; New York University Law School; the University of Texas School of Law; Cardozo Law School, New York Law School; Brooklyn Law School; Cumberland School of Law; the Sports Lawyers Association; the College Sports Research Institute; the Brooklyn Bar Association; the University of South Carolina; Marquette University; the American Hockey Coaches Association; the African Travel Association in the U.S. and in Kampala, Uganda and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association from 2008-2011. He was awarded the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies Award for Teaching Excellence in 2006 and its award for service in 2014.

He has experience as a publicist, coach and manager of sporting events at the national and international levels. Admitted to the bars of New York and Georgia, he previously was litigation counsel to several major New York-area law firms, including Skadden Arps, and was an assistant district attorney and confidential legal assistant to a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Boland earned varsity letters in football and wrestling at Columbia. After graduation, he worked in sports administration at Columbia, University of Tennessee, Southeastern Conference and with United States Swimming and at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Joining Faculty at Ohio University College of Business, Sports Administration Program as Executive in Residence August 2015

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